BALTIMORE – The visiting UMBC men's basketball team won their fifth straight contest as they defeated the Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds, 72-69, on Tuesday evening at Reitz Arena.
 
UMBC (8-4) freshman Dion Brown was sensational in just his second career game as the guard produced a game-high 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting in 19 minutes off the bench. Graduate student Jarvis Doles added 12 points and senior Jacob Boonyasith was also in double-figures with 11 points. Senior forward Yaw Obeng-Mensah just missed a double-double with nine points along with a game-high 11 rebounds.
 
The game featured nine lead changes and UMBC trailed by as many as seven points on two different occassions in the opening half.
 
How It Happened (First Half)
- UMBC jumped out to a 10-5 edge after a trey from graduate student Colton Lawrence at the 16:44 mark.
- The Greyhounds, however, ripped off 12 consecutive points to build their largest lead of the game at 17-10 with 13:49 left.
- UMBC answered with seven straight points of their own to even the score midway through the stanza.
- Loyola (Md.) (4-8) again surged ahead and took a 28-21 lead after a dunk by forward Golden Dike at the 6:07 mark.
- The visitors continued to battle as Brown ignited a 14-2 spurt with a triple and then added two more buckets during the stretch to spot UMBC a 33-30 lead at the 2:45 mark.
- The two teams went into the break deadlocked at 36-36.
 
How It Happened (Second)
- The game went back-and-forth and was still even at 57-57 with 8:08 remaining in the contest.
- Brown made a short jumper in the paint and freshman guard Mason Docks stuck a pull-up jumper to give UMBC the lead for good, 61-57 with 6:44 on the clock.
- The Greyhounds trimmed the deficit to 61-60 after a jumper by Chris Kuzemka but the Retrievers answered with seven straight points to grab their largest lead of the game, 68-60, with just 4:01 remaining. Obeng-Mensah converted a driving layup to open the stretch and junior guard Matteo Picarelli drilled a step-back trifecta and then made a pair of free throws.
- UMBC still led 72-64 with just 53 seconds remaining after Docks made two clutch free throws but the hosts did not go away easily.
- Guard Deon Perry made a three with 27 ticks left and then Docks misfired on the front end of a one-and-one. Isaiah Alexander followed with a second-chance layup to whittle UMBC's lead down to 72-69 with 16 seconds left.
- Lawrence missed both of his free throw attempts with 11 seconds left but Kenneth Jones (team-high 16 points) misfired on a potential game-tying trey in the closing seconds for the Greyhounds.
 
Notes
- UMBC snapped a nine-game losing skid to Loyola (Md) and their last victory against the Greyhounds came during the 2004-05 campaign.
- Boonyasith scored his 700^th career point with a bucket in the opening half.
- Starting point guard Craig Beaudion II and key reserve forward Tra'Von Fagan did not dress.
- Docks made his first career start at the point and scored six points while dishing a career-best five assists.
- UMBC's bench outscored Loyola's by a 29-16 margin.
- The Retrievers are 6-0 when they hold their opponent under 70 points.
- UMBC went 3-0 against their Baltimore foes defeating Coppin State, Morgan State and Loyola.

Quote from head coach Jim Ferry
"This was an unbelievable team win for us tonight especially because we had our starting point guard (Beaudion II) out as well as another player (Fagan) who plays big minutes. I thought the two freshmen (Brown and Docks) were tremendous. Once we settled down in the second half we let the ball find the shot after forcing some things in the first half. The biggest key was only turning the ball over three times in the second half."

Quote from freshman Dion Brown
"I always have a lot of confidence in myself but I'm glad that I played well and helped the team get a win tonight. I owe it all to my teammates and coaches for putting me in the right situation. They {Loyola (Md.} were paying a lot of attention to other guys defensively and that helped me get a lot of opportunities to get some shots off."

Up Next
UMBC will host William & Mary on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. A win would give the Retrievers a six-game winning streak for the second time under Coach Ferry.